A Miracle Of Sorts
by Squee Black
Summary: Ryan is a new, unknown face to the O.C. scene, and has one objective on his mind: Get Seth Cohen.
1. Mr Perfect

**A/N: This is a SLASH fanfic. Don't like it? Then don't read it. It is also an AU fanfiction.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the O.C. or any of it's components, because if I did, the show would be nothing but Seth and Ryan kissing.**

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Ryan**

People lined the boardwalk, kids and their ice cream cones, teenage girls, their boyfriends tagging along behind them to watch the way the girl's butts swayed with each step, and the elderly watching them with disapproving eyes.

This was were he comes in, fresh off the ferris wheel, wearing jeans and a new polo shirt, eyes covered by goofy oversized glasses, and curly hair shining as the sun reflected off of it. His best friend Summer was walking, fingers entwined with his, looking like a supermodel in her outfit. It wasn't fair, why did she get to hold his hand, they were just friends! I didn't understand it, I didn't want to understand it, I just wanted to be her, just to be able to touch his baby-soft hands, laughing at the unfunniest things, I just wanted to kiss his forehead, or him to kiss mine, I just wanted him.

His name was Seth Cohen, and he was walking perfection.

-o-x-o-x-o-

It was my first day at Harbor, and I had no clue what to do. My new, and only, friend Marissa said she would show me around, but I hadn't found her yet.

"Hey, Ryan!" Ah, there she was, all smiles and designer clothes, everything I could never be.

"Hey, Rissa, I thought you had forgotten about me." I said, trying to pull off a mock-hurt look.

"You look constipated." She said in response to my face. I couldn't help it, I had to laugh, and she did too.

"Hey, let's go see my classes, _before_ school starts!" I said, grabbing her hand and dragging her along. First class, Home Economics.

"This is the Home Ec lab, Ryan, this is where you will learn to cook, sew, write checks and-" she was interrupted by a voice that was like a chorus of Gods.

"Hey, Marissa, who is this?" Seth, that's right, SETH, called, striding up to us. His smile was bright enough to be an emergency-sun in case ours burnt out, and I felt like melting right there.

"Hey Seth, this is my friend Ryan. He just moved here about two weeks ago. I can't believe you hadn't met each other yet!" She said, though she knew Ryan was basically in love with Seth. Ryan told her everything. "So, Seth, ready for the day to start? You've got first period with Ryan, so you can get to know him, but until then, we have to go. I need to show him the rest of his classes!" She smiled, hugging Seth, and then he reached over and shook my hand, a 'Nice to meet you, now goodbye' sort of thing, and I followed Marissa as she sashayed down the hall.

"What. The. HELL?" I began, mortified, "You didn't tell me he had this class with me!" I was amazed. Why hadn't she told him?

"I guess it just...slipped my mind?" She answered, though it came out as a question.

"Brrrrrringg!" Damn. The Bell.

Without another word, Marissa hugged me briefly and grinned, then ran off to her class, leaving me to face Seth. "Oh man. What am I going to do?" I asked myself aloud.

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Seth**

"Wow. He was, in one word, perfect." Seth confessed to Summer that night in his pool house. Home Ec had been rather uneventful, other than the fact that Ryan, who Seth preferred to think of as a Greek God, sat across from him and had the most perfect hair, face, bitten fingernails he had ever seen.

"Cohen, why not talk to him? I mean, he is Marissa's friend, and we have known her forever. Granted, she didn't bother to tell us about him, but I am sure she had a reason." Summer suggested, yawning toward the end. "Ohmygod. COHEN! It is One. In. The. Morning. For God's sake, I need my beauty sleep!" She said, amazed that she sat there listening to Seth drag on an on about a boy he barely even spoke three words to for five and a half hours!

"Fine, I'll talk to you tomorrow, I guess." He said, and with a quick 'Goodbye' he clicked off the phone and curled up on his bed, Captain Oats beside him. "What should I do?" He asked his equine companion, "Ryan is everything I have ever wanted...but he is like...a guy. I didn't think I would ever actually want a GUY. It's so...unusual. I mean, I have been questioning..but..." He trailed off, sleep overcoming him, and his Mom quietly opened the door, pulling his sky blue comforter over him.

"Sleep tight, honey." She though for a moment, wondering if his subconscious could hear her, "If you need to talk to someone-anyone about you being gay, or whatever you are, I am here." She whispered, wishing she could actually get him to talk to here again, like he did when he was a kid and needed someone to talk to.

**A/N Sorry it was such a short chapter. If you like it, or have CONSTRUCTIVE criticism to give, please review, it helps me write!**


	2. Do I Have To Say It?

**A/N: I hope this chapter comes out better than the last one. It is hard, because I am trying to do a different kind of Ryan, a more...insecure one. **

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Marissa, asleep on Friday night. (Yes, I skipped a whole week.) **

"Oh...wow..I just.." Ryan was gay. Should couldn't believe it. "Are you sure? Maybe it's just hormones, or-" She was cut off, Ryan melting away from her, replaced with Summer, crying. "What's wrong?" She asked, reaching out for Summer's arm, "Why are you crying?" Marissa sounded scared, like she didn't want to know, but then Summer looked up, glowing in beauty, but her eyes looking like a wilted flower. Like her soul was gone.

"Nothing, Coop." She said, trying to wipe her tears away, "Just, forget it. You wouldn't understand." And with that, Summer disappeared into a cloud of feathers and glass, leaving Marissa alone, arms nicked by the fly shards of Summer. Now it was Marissa's turn to cry. She knew what was wrong with Summer.

-o-x-o-x-o-

Ring. Pause. Ring. Pause. Ring.

"Come ON Summer, answer the phone!" Marissa whined. Just before the answering machine would have picked up, Marissa hung up. She needed to talk to Summer.

The clock was flashing, red LED lights burning into her cornea. It was three in the morning. Summer was asleep, and her phone was on silent. Just her luck. Who could she talk to? There was nobody, Ryan was God knows where, and Summer was asleep. Ready to give up, she grabbed her remote, flicking on the TV. What do you know? "Seth." She whispered, climbing out of bed, her eyes on the Sci-Fi channel. It was playing Seth's favorite movie. Gremlins.

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Seth **

DingggggDongggg.

Seth jumped, popcorn falling out of the bag that sat on his lap. "This better be important!" He called, upset that he had been interrupted during his favorite PG movie, Gremlins. "I swear, if it isn't someone that is bleeding to death, or something, I will be SO...Marissa?" He was stunned. Marissa, at his house, at three forty-five in the morning?

"Seth, I need to talk to you." She said, pushing Seth into the house and closing the door behind her. "I need to know something. Do you love Summer?" Her voice seemed urgent, Seth was worried.

"Well, of course I do." He answered, "But did you really need to come to my house at three, almost four in the morning, to ask?"

"No. Seth. Do you LOVE her." Marissa needed him to understand, she needed it more than she has ever needed anything.

"Not like that." He was getting antsy. Nervous. Marissa could tell.

"Seth, your gay."

Seth just stood there, wondering what the hell just happened, "What, I don't love Summer, so I am gay now?" He said, in as loud a whisper as possible.

"Seth. Admit it. You like guys." She was up against him, and was rather intimidating for such a small girl.

"Well..."

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Summer **

"Marissa. I knew he was gay." God, can't she just stay out of it?

"But Summer, you love him. You know you do." Marissa said, hugging a pillow to her chest as she sat on Summer's bed around noon. She was worried, Summer wasn't calling her Coop.

"Look, I don't think that is your business. And besides, it wouldn't matter, he is gay. I mean, come ON." Jesus, yes, I love him, but I am not about to admit it, especially after he worked so hard to start coming out. Do you KNOW what he went through to even admit to HIMSELF that he was gay?

"Summer."

"Marissa."

"Summer. Please." She said, her eyes beginning to water. She knew Summer was dying on the inside.

And summer just leaned forward, falling into Marissa's open arms, letting her tears run like a river.

**A/N: There. I wanted to get Summer and Marissa more involved, because they will play a big role later on, so I just wanted to do a chapter about them, and Seth. Trust me, there will be a lot more Ryan in the next one.**


	3. Hovels, Shacks, and Crackhouses

**A/N: Ohmy. I am SOOOO sorry I haven't been updating! I had finals and hadn't had a chance, but here I am, ready to write!**

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Seth**

Marissa, Summer, and Seth were walking on the cracked sidewalks of the Newport area with all the lower-class houses, the place their feet always took them when they were being troubled by something.

"God, I feel so bad for these people. I mean, look at these houses. One story..what's the word?"

"Hovels? Shacks? Crackhouses?" Seth volunteered, walking behind Summer with his arms around her waist, as he so often did.

"Yeah, shack, that was the-Ryan."

Seth let go of her waist unconciously, looking around for the boy that stalked his dreams. "Ryan? Where?"

"Straight ahead. Oh my god. He must live in there, in that house!" They all turned in the direction of the finger Summer had extended to the left, the run-down, one story buliding that looked like it would collapse at any second. And there was Ryan, clearly visible in the window, washing a glass.

Seth started walking, not waiting for the girls, to where Ryan was. "Dude. What the hell? You live here?" He was at the front door, yelling through the decaying wood. He jiggled the handle, opening the door, and walked in. Summer and Marissa came running in after him.

"Cohen, stop, you don't need to-" Too late. Ryan was standing there, in front of them, stunned.

"What are you doing here?"

"Dude, man, I saw you in the window. You live here?"

"Y-yeah. After the tuition for school was paid, this was the only house that was in an affordable price range for what I had." He looked like he was dying.

Marissa just gazed at him, her eyes filled with spite. "You lied to me." And off she went, running out the door and up the street. Summer looked to Seth, and he nodded, and then she ran off after Marissa. Seth put his hand on Ryan's shoulder, though it was hard for him not to squeel just because he touched perfection.

"Ryan. I don't want you to live like this. My POOL HOUSE is bigger than this." And then it hit him. "Pool house. You can come live with me, you can live in my pool house."

"Seth, no."

Seth wouldn't have it, "I want you to move in with me, at least for a little while." He smiled, and Ryan couldn't refuse, not with Seth's smile beaming in his face.

"Only for a little while."

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Marissa**

"What is his problem?" She was crying on Summer's bed, with Summer sitting beside her listening intently.

"He told me he lived in a different part of town, but he said it was a mansion. Why didn't he tell me? He could have been honest. I would have helped him out!"

Summer just stroked Marissa's hair, whispering to her, "I am sure he had his reasons, maybe he was just embarassed about being poor." And as Summer continued to console her, Marissa's tears dried up. "Thanks, Sum, your a great friend."

And Summer just smiled and nodded.

-o-x-o-x-o-

**Ryan**

"And if you read between the lines, you will notice the hidden meanings in this. Like, in the line-" The teacher paused to scribble something on the whiteboard, "In the line where the Prince asks the commoner if her tears were from as deep a well as he suspected, it could be interpreted as-" Another pause and scribble, "Am I the reason for your pain. See what I mean?" The class mumbled an unenthusiastic 'Yeah' and went about their doodling and whispered conversations.

All the students except for me, I was paying more attention in English class that I had in my whole life. My hand was in the air, and my mind was tyring to form the question I wanted to ask.

"Mr. Atwood, you have a question?"

"Yes."

"Well, on with it."

"So, anything anyone says could be interpreted. Like, in example, if someone were to say something along the lines of 'I want you to move in with me, at least for a little while,' it can be interpreted as 'I want to be with you. At least for now.' Right?"

The teacher rolled her dull eyes, "Yes, I suppose so."

And that was the answer I was looking for.


End file.
